NewsWatch Canada undertakes independent research on the diversity and thoroughness of news coverage in Canada’s media, with a focus on identifying blind spots and double standards.  Housed in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University as a research and educational project by four faculty members, our recent work has included news analysis seminars for undergraduates and  publications on issues of news monitoring and news analysis.

Every year at SFU, NewsWatch Canada offers an upper division research seminar to students interested in media-monitoring studies.  The course (Cmns431) focuses on patterns of under-and over-reporting in the mainstream news in order to uncover key trends and patterns in news omission. Each year Cmns 431 explores a different topic or aspect of news content, with themes ranging from representations of gender in news (Fall 2009)science and the politics of global warming in Canadian print media (Summer 2007) to media coverage of the 2005 BC provincial election.  (Much of the work of these seminars is available on this website).  This small seminar allows senior students the opportunity to explore the current state of commercial news outlets and gain valuable knowledge on how the news operates to inform and engage democratic participants.  The seminar also creates opportunities for students to learn research methods and project management.

If you are interested in supporting the work of Newswatch Canada please see here.

Note: Newswatch Canada began as Project Censored Canada (PCC) in 1993 as a collaborative project of the School of Communication at SFU, the University of Windsor and the Canadian Association of Journalists.  It was renamed NewsWatch Canada in 1998.

Co-Directors

Dr. Robert Hackett

Prof. Hackett has taught in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University since 1984. He has been involved in NewsWatch Canada since 1993 to 2003. He has conducted numerous media interviews and public talks, written policy briefs, and has helped to found several community-based media action and education initiatives, including Vancouver’s annual Media Democracy Day.

Donald Gutstein

Donald Gutstein is an adjunct professor in the School of Communication and co-director of NewsWatch Canada.  He teaches in the areas of new media, propaganda analysis and documentary research.  His most recent book, Not a Conspiracy Theory: How Business Propaganda Hijacks Democracy (Key Porter), was published in October, 2009.

Dr. Shane Gunster

Dr. Shane Gunster is an associate professor at School of Communication where his research criteria include news media analysis (esp. talk radio and coverage of environmental issues), political communication (eps. neo-conservative political discourse), and advertising and consumer culture.

Dr. Kathleen Cross

Dr. Cross is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University where her research interests include democratic communication, news media analysis, gender in media, media theory, public opinion, and the analysis of political campaigns and elections. She is the Canadian National Coordinator for the Global Media Monitoring Project, an international initiative that focuses on gender representation in the news media in over 100 countries.  She also is on the Steering Committee for Vancouver’s Media Democracy Day and became a co-director of NewsWatch Canada in 2010.